One thing about Fiddle that most people don't really understand is that CDR is his best friend. Ensuring that you have 40% CDR will allow you to use your ult for every team fight and even for ganks in between. Ionians and the Magus enchantment along with Masteries will put you at 40% just in time for the mid game transition. If you would prefer Sorcerer Boots instead I can only recommend taking Scaling CDR Glyphs to make up for the 15% loss. Scaling CDR Runes are, in my opinion, the strongest Runes in League of Legends. 15% CDR is such a massive advantage, more than you could get from MR or AP runes.

Boots are sort of a toss up. I like Ionians so I can run maximum AP runes for that early advantage while still keeping my CDR at 40%. However, running Scaling CDR Runes will free you up to use Sorcerer's Boots, adding to the already ridiculous amount of Magic Pen this build allows.

I run Ranger's Trailblazer early game to get ahead in the jungle. I'll Smite the Raptors at every opportunity before going to a lane and having RT gives me a super fast camp clear (little tip on Raptor camp: Smite > Dark Wind > Drain for max clear speed). The reason I don't start with Stalkers is because early game ganks should be a complete surprise, ulting in from a place most laners won't have warded. If you combo correctly, there should be no need for the Stalker slow.

The correct combo is to Ult in and fear your main target immediately, followed by Dark Wind then Drain. The combination of CC and damage should be more than enough to overcome any early game laner. Or at the very least burn a flash or two, in which case, Stalker wouldn't have helped anyway. Early game lane ganks should be quick and clean and should be done by absolute surprise to the enemy. The goal of a Fiddle player is create panic and confusion in those precious fractions of a second that a player has to react. In that time you should be positioning yourself appropriately to fear your target away from safety and into your friendly laner or turret.

Simply taking the RT upgrade and not the enchantment allows you the ability to clear quickly and also the ability to switch to a Stalker when the time is right. This action also frees up the gold you would have spend on Magus to invest in your Zhonyas.

Zhonyas is the most important item any Fiddle player will ever use. Getting into the middle of a team fight, Fearing the ADC, silencing the mid laner and then immediately going invulnerable is how a good Fiddle can win a team fight single handed. The other bonus to Zhonyas is the Armour, coupled with Abyssal Scepter you should have an agreeable amount or resist to last you the remainder of the game.

Abyssal Scepter is amazing on Fiddle for a number of reasons. Most important is the Magic Pen, it synergizes with Fiddle's passive granting a total of 30 Magic Pen to nearby enemies which means that every Crow Storm is going to hit that much harder. MP combined with +50 MR and a very healthy amount of AP makes this item an absolute must on Fiddle.

Next is the Rabadon's, I don't think any real explanation is necessary here.

Finally, we come to the 6th item. It's really a toss up between Void Staff and Rylai's. AP is comparable, the extra health and decent slow definitely has it's advantages but 35% Magic Pen is, at times, a much better idea. This choice will depend solely on what the opposing team is building. I've been coming around on Void staff as a standard build item after I ran the numbers.

Even if a Champ doesn't build MR they usually have, on average around 50 to 55 MR from growing through lvls 1-18. For arguments sake let's assume 55...

55 - 41% from Void and Masteries = 32.5
32.5 - 20 from Abyssal = 12.5
12.5 - 10 from Passive = 2.5
2.5 - 7.8 from Runes = Well... you get the idea. This is without Sorcerer's boots as well. So essentially with Void and Abyssal alone you'll be hitting ADCs for near true magic damage. Void is a strong item and I'll be using it more and more from now on.

Runes are kinda funny on Fiddle because you really have to think of him differently than any other Champion. Fiddle's power is not in his ability to sustain an attack through resistances, his power is in his ability to sustain an attack through the amazing amount of health that is replenished using Drain. Now, many may argue that Resist makes drain more effective because Drain gives back HP which in turn is reinforced by Resists but to be honest I've never been able to notice a difference. All I know is that Fiddle can clear camps faster with more AP, which is the goal of the early game. and even into lvl 6 most ganks should result in the enemy fleeing in a state of panic and shouldn't involve you even getting hit that hard, which means resists are useless.

The hardest thing to learn about playing Fiddle is Ult control. Fiddle's Crow Storm has a 5sec channel time and once activated cannot be cancelled unless by CC effects. This means that you need to be intuitive about when to use it. This skill takes time to learn and many failed attempts to master. However, when the art of the Fiddle Ult is understood and applied effectively... Magic happens. In all the games and all the champs I've played in LoL, NOTHING compares to the sense of satisfaction I get from landing a perfect Crow Storm. Watching the health of 5 champs drop so quickly in a simultaneous orchestra of mayhem and confusion, brings the most wonderful smile to my face.

Here's how it's done: The timing is everything, Fiddle can most certainly initiat a teamfight but the danger there is that your team may not follow up fast enough to capitalize. Make sure to ping before activating so your team mates have a heads up. Otherwise the best move is to wait for another to initiate and those first fw seconds when all hell breaks loose is the time to strike.

Positioning is only slightly less important. You need to make sure you are waiting where they either cannot see you or just can't be bothered to pay enough attention to you because in League the brain does funny things. In many cases, even when they have vision of you, most player's brains will disregard a Fiddle standing on the other side of a wall or grouping of trees because most players just aren't used to Champions having the ability to drop in like Fiddle can. Fiddle's ult also has a unique quirk to it that allows for some crazy plays. If you are camping bot lane in the Red side Tri-Brush watching the opposing duo push to your turret, Fiddle can move out of the brush into the curved elbow of the trees between the river and lane entrance by turret. He can activate his ult in the middle of that huge wedge of trees and the when it finishes channelling it will drop Fiddle right in the lane behind the enemies. This trick works with all terrain, ult into the middle and it will pop you out at the closest legal space, which can make for some fantastic and unexpected plays.

Getting you positioning and timing down is the hard part, now comes the follow up. Knowing who to fear, who to silence and who to drain can be tricky. Most of it is just felt but the nicest part of the 5 sec channel is that it gives you time to make a plan. To know whether to flash or who to target first. It's important to know what you are going to do before you land so use that time wisely.

A good example is the one from above. You're red side waiting in the tri-bush at bot lane. You patiently let the opposing duo push to turret, chances are the ADC is furthest away and the support is closest. Ult in, Flash across, fear the ADC into the turret, silence the support to cancel any CC and then drain the ADC before they can apply any real damage. If you're lucky the ADC will go down quick and the Support will be in a bad way from eating so much crow that you should have no problem getting the double.

Another one of my favorites is when you are on Blue side at the top lane Tri-Bush, watching the enemy Jax shove the turret after just killing your laner. Here's an interesting thing about this combo and circumstance. If there ate smacking the turret when you land, any minions that are there are going to die almost instantly to your Crow Storm which means that when you fear them into the turret or the wall they are going to be taking Ult damage, Turret agro and drain damage all within a few seconds. I haven't run into too many champs that can survive an assault like that.

Fiddle is a very strong ganker, which is why I insist in 40% CDR, the more Crow Storms you have available, the more near guaranteed deaths you can collect.